Comments on Deus Ex Malcontent: Into the Maelstrom (Redux)

Hi there,Excelent chronicle. It flows and grabs. I...

2009-01-10T17:58:00.000-05:00

Hi there,

Excelent chronicle. It flows and grabs. I used to work in WSVN, in fact during Adrew, in the News Desk(10pm Assignment Editor). Missed all the field 'fun'...Some of you, people, I will never forget...Peggy Philip What`s up!? Saludos from Peru!

Go here: Reading is Fundamental.Click the links, s...

2008-08-24T14:04:45.940-04:00

Go here: Reading is Fundamental.

Click the links, since a few of them lead to future stories involving Abby.

Then buy my little book, Dead Star Twilight; she plays a pretty strong role in it.

But what happened to Abby?

2008-08-24T13:55:00.000-04:00

But what happened to Abby?

Wow, 16 years. It doesn't feel that long ago!! I w...

2008-08-22T02:00:00.000-04:00

Wow, 16 years. It doesn't feel that long ago!!

I was at Lollapalooza the day before as well, didn't get home till 4am and got that same call you did, only from Alice Jacobs. I was on booth duty for most of the time and was with another producer and Rochelle Bridges at the radio station we were affiliated with up in North Miami when the storm hit. Afterward, it was 12 hours on, 12 hours off for weeks! Ahh, the memories.

Thanks for the read, Chez.

Thank you, Mr. Wizard.

2008-08-21T20:45:02.351-04:00

Thank you, Mr. Wizard.

"The pressure of the storm's powerful revolution p...

2008-08-21T20:24:00.000-04:00

"The pressure of the storm's powerful revolution pulls all surrounding clouds in toward its center..."

No. Just no. Air rises in the eyewall, descends in the eye and at the edges. Descending air = no clouds. It's not a freaking vacuum.

I just actually read this to my girlfriend. She sa...

2008-08-20T04:43:00.000-04:00

I just actually read this to my girlfriend. She says you might be the greatest writer ever, and that you should hire me to record audio books for you :D

I took a few journalism classes but majored in Mot...

2008-08-19T22:51:06.685-04:00

I took a few journalism classes but majored in Motion Pictures.

While I have to be awake at 5 a.m. (for my J-Job) ...

2008-08-19T21:24:00.000-04:00

While I have to be awake at 5 a.m. (for my J-Job) I could not pull my eyes away from this. For someone who has not had an ounce of J-School training, you have many talents in that field.
Keep on Keepin' on.

I remember living in Miami Lakes and getting mad t...

2008-08-19T19:35:00.000-04:00

I remember living in Miami Lakes and getting mad that my power was out for 2 hours.

My mother-in-law in Kendall got her power back in 2 and a half weeks!

My brother-in law lived in Country Walk, it took my wife 2 days to get in touch with him. They were OK but the house was minus a roof. He now lives in North Carolina.

Funny about Sally and her comment to the photographer, the rumor was she went to the hospital for the same condition.

If Rick would have been shot then he would not have killed that guy after the Dolphin game. Scumbag.

Your writing Chez is wonderful, keep up the good work.

So, were YOU the guy that Sally Fitz suggested sho...

2008-08-19T18:09:00.001-04:00

So, were YOU the guy that Sally Fitz suggested should stick a microphone up your ass? It would help close a question I've had since '92.

Lollapalooza was a great time - we found out about Andrew during our post-show recovery meal at the Miracle Center Friday's.

Man, seems like a lifetime ago.

I was just a child when Andrew struck, so I have n...

2008-08-19T18:07:00.000-04:00

I was just a child when Andrew struck, so I have no real memory of the horror of that storm.

But when I read this, all I can think of is how this puts into sharp perspective just how bad Katrina must have been for New Orleans to descend into anarchy.

And then I thank the powers that be that I live in the Midwest where even tornadoes at their strongest aren't capable of this level of destruction.

I had a job that took me South beginning about 35 ...

2008-08-19T17:26:00.000-04:00

I had a job that took me South beginning about 35 hours after Andrew hit, and every day for the following week. I've never seen anything like it, until Katrina. Late that evening, around midnight I think, I left my place and rode over to my mother's place well inland in Coconut Creek to ride out the storm. It was perfectly clear the whole evening, not until I was going up Broward Boulevard on my motorcycle did I see the first clouds begin to come over. I-95 was mostly deserted at that point in Broward County, but I passed a long line of Humvees and army trucks going slowly north. Apparently the National Guard guys had been given orders to ride out the storm in Palm Beach County, then returned to help organize the relief efforts in Dade.

My place off Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale got some pretty good winds, but no major damage. My aunt rode out the storm on Fisher Island, where they clocked over 150 mph winds. I had a friend who lived in Southridge, and her whole family crowded into one little closet where the men held the door closed as the wind blew out the whole house, and took everything with it. (Note to anyone thinking of trying to ride out a category 5 hurricane, don't do it moron, because there's a very good chance that you and your family will die a viciously violent death should you attempt it.)

On our drive south in a truck after the storm we didn't see much damage until we got to Kendall, that's when it started getting really bad, all the roof tiles were missing, and all the windows blown out. And it just kept getting worse the farther south we went. At one point we got into some areas where the National Guard had yet to reach, and the streets were filled with children begging for food and water. It was like some kind of scene from some third world country. All the streets were blocked, you could not get anywhere with a vehicle because of the power lines and power poles and streetlights and traffic lights were laying down everywhere. Those steel highway signs on 826 south of about West Perrine were twisted up into pretzels in many places, forming mothers nature's interpretation of a modern Art sculpture.

Somewhere northwest of the Turkey point nuclear power plant, about a mile and a half inland or so, the seawater had risen about 2 or 3 feet in the houses during the storm, and we helped some guy pull a live three-foot longer Nurse shark out of his pool and throw it into the canal. It was hard to know exactly where anything was because after a certain point almost all the street signs were completely gone, and nothing was familiar. We got lost a number of times, as did most everyone we ran into.

In some of those south neighborhoods where the houses were completely destroyed, roofs gone and everything in those houses had been scattered across the county, people were just walking around in shock, and we had to try and sit them down and give them some water, and tell them it was going to be okay. Those first few days it was a huge struggle just to get people water, ice and medical assistance, food and other necessities came later.

I saw those C5 Galaxies, huge Air Force cargo planes, flying into Homestead Air Force Base and I think the Opa-Locka Airport Airport as well all day long bring in supplies. About every hour another one of those monster jets would fly in and the one that had been unloaded would fly out.

We ended up making it down to Florida City one day because of roadblocks that wouldn't let us go north for a while, and Florida City was gone, I mean completely gone, nothing but concrete pads were left, even the water pipes were gone. One day there was a Burger King where I used to stop and eat before I'd get on the Card Sound Road down to Key Largo, the next day wiped clean by the wrath of God. It really was a disaster of biblical proportions, especially when you were sitting in the middle of it.

When I saw what happened with Katrina, which was really on a significantly larger scale, it brought back all those old feelings I experienced dealing with Andrew. It's a kind of sick helpless feeling that makes you realize what small and powerless creatures we are reduced to in the face of such titanic natural forces. When I was a kid growing up in Florida, I always got excited when a hurricane was coming, I remember David as well. I went outside and leaned into the wind, almost at a perfect 45° angle. And later as a surfer I often found myself hoping that a hurricane would come our way, just so we would get some good waves. But after seven or eight hurricanes, and experiencing the aftermath of Andrew firsthand, and having the eye of hurricane Wilma pass over me, I've had my full measure. No more hurricanes for me thank you very much.

Amazing story. Felt like I was reading a novel.

2008-08-19T16:59:00.000-04:00

Amazing story. Felt like I was reading a novel.

You just took me back to Hurricane Ivan.. we rode...

2008-08-19T16:30:00.001-04:00

You just took me back to Hurricane Ivan.. we rode out the storm in the hospital my wife worked at. A windowless cave. Spent the night listening to pieces of the building fly off.. about 2am a tornado hit the building, blowing out all the glass in the hallway outside the unit.

The next morning, I had to warn my wife that things would be very different when we stepped outside. She said later that she appreciated the warning.. and that "different" was an understatement.

At least we were on high ground..

I just read this on my lunch break, and I was comp...

2008-08-19T16:30:00.000-04:00

I just read this on my lunch break, and I was completely transfixed. I even forgot to eat my lunch.

you, sir, are a hell of a writer.

Great writing.

2008-08-19T16:12:00.000-04:00

Great writing.

Thanks for bringing back some incredible memories....

2008-08-19T15:43:00.000-04:00

Thanks for bringing back some incredible memories.
I was stuck in the hurricane center with Dr. Bob Sheets when Andrew hit.
Then it was back to the Causeway for those wonderful twelve-hour shifts!
I laughed remembering Sally and Ralph's on-air exchange. I think Princell was in the booth. I was actually sleeping under my desk but came out because I heard Tom Gonzales Remember her "apparatus" explanation in the Herald? Hi-and-larious.

Sometimes I forget that in the middle of all that ...

2008-08-19T14:32:05.784-04:00

Sometimes I forget that in the middle of all that outrage and misanthropy there's a soul... and a very large one.

That was moving, Chez. I was safely home in NJ whe...

2008-08-19T13:40:00.000-04:00

That was moving, Chez. I was safely home in NJ when Andrew struck, but I recall watching the news coverage with shock.

Yeah, Andrew sucked.My cable was out for like 2 we...

2008-08-19T13:26:00.000-04:00

Yeah, Andrew sucked.

My cable was out for like 2 weeks. It was brutal.

Wow. Just...wow.

2008-08-19T11:49:00.000-04:00

Wow. Just...wow.

thanks for posting this chez. i seem to miss all t...

2008-08-19T10:53:00.000-04:00

thanks for posting this chez. i seem to miss all the great disasters. i was in tallahassee when this happened and was only able to talk to my family in miami intermittently afterwards, never quite knowing how bad it was.

same with 9/11. although it was heavily covered in spain, i'll never know what it was like to be here for that. your words help me approximate and for that i'm thankful.